Tuesday, October 21, 2014

I love making Bella quilts from my Bella pattern! I made this one using a Moda Catalina batik charm pack from Pine Street Quilts where I work on Tuesdays. I also selected a very dark brown from the shop as the applique fabric. I used some of the left over charm squares cut in half and sewn end to end as a pieced border.

I quilted a leaf design on each cheek and the chin with variegated thread. I added some grass green glitter to the veins of the leaf on the left cheek to add definition. I embellished with some loose glitter/glue on the eyelid and I also added some glitter nail polish on the mouth.

I presented this quilt to the owner of the quilt shop as a potential quilt kit and she agreed! I will also will be teaching this quilt as a class on Saturday January 10, 2015 and students can create their Bella quilt in any color way whether monochromatic, color wheel or a charm pack version.

I taught this class last Saturday in Green Bay, WI and was impressed with the student's creativity and am inspired my their color choices and want to create more Bella quilts!!

Thursday, October 2, 2014

I have wanted to make a steam punk themed quilt for over a year. I looked at all the different fashions, hairstyles, hats and jewelry at Pinterest. I saw a lot of muted browns, golds, and rusts since it was old fashioned and bright fabric dyes hadn't been invented. Steampunk mixes the Victorian Era fashions and decorations with the Industrial Revolution (gears, keys, flight, trains, bicycles, clocks.) I loved the old fashioned corsets, fancy hats, gears and peacock feathers. I just couldn't start this quilt until the "right" fabrics were in my possession. This summer a local woman called Vicki gave me a nice stash of specialty fabrics and there was a considerable amount of the turquoise, gold bronze and brown plaid lame. The minute I saw it I knew it was the outside border and the color scheme came together. The lame is very crunchy, noisy and has a paper-like feel and is lightweight but does not unravel. I also used lame from Vicki for the corset, hat brim edge and the hat band and ribbon. The other fabrics are commercial batiks and cottons.

The huge peacock plume was a bit difficult to draw out the applique pattern but once it was sewn down I really love the affect.

I used some white fabric paint to get the reflection in the goggles, eye area and the mouth. I have some glitter nail polish on the eyelids and mouth. I was given a box of embellishments from my local quilt guild when I stepped down as program coordinator and there were pieces of vintage jewelry in the box. I reworked a few pieces to create the necklace centerpiece. The bronzy rhinestones were purchased at Joann Fabrics in the bead department and the whole thing appears weathered and worn.

I also found a bag of metal gears at Joann Fabrics which I hand sewed randomly on the quilt. I googled gear clip art and printed a few simple gear motifs using Carol Doak's foundation paper. I sewed over the lines to get the gear design and did some tiny stippling in the gear openings to get a secondary gear design.

Then I always title my quilts and was stumbling a bit with this one. I found a website where you can get a steampunk name based on your own name. I didn't like my converted name but I liked parts of it and I also used parts of my daughter's name version. I used Victoria as the first name because my friend Vicki contributed to the great plaid border fabric and lames and because of the Victorian Era. I combined my mom's maiden name "Locke" with my last name to get "Brigadier Victoria Locke-Ceesay."

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About Me

I am a contemporary quilter who specializes in portrait quilts. I am a hairdresser and am fascinated with hairstyles, make up, replicating the human form in fiber, retro fashion/prints, flowers and fairies. I usually work with bright colors, batiks and large scale prints. I love to embellish my quilts with rhinestones, beads, baubles, yarn, paint and crayons.